Book Review: The Dragon Garden

IndieBookView

Dec 1

The Dragon Garden

by Resa Nelson

Genre: Middle Grade / Fantasy

ISBN: 9798399397375

Print Length: 278 pages

Reviewed by Elena Bellaart

Eleven-year-old Pingzi Po is no ordinary little girl. She is a demon queller, responsible for identifying demons at work throughout the kingdom of the Far East and helping those they may be possessing. Her friend and guardian, a Northlander named Benzel, is one such case. Readers quickly learn that, in a previous installment of the series, Pingzi quelled the demon that had been possessing Benzel, freeing him and beginning their friendship. The relationship between small, curious Pingzi and looming, serious Benzel is one of The Dragon Garden's most enjoyable elements; this unlikely pair makes a fun and often sweet team.

A member of the royal Po family, Pingzi's work has alienated her from her mother and sisters, who see demon quelling as an inappropriate vocation for a woman. In fact, Pingzi is the first female demon queller in history, and as such is protected from the fate most girls in the kingdom fear—being captured by a man and forced into marriage.